the Filles-Saint-Thomas, appeared to take the lead in this movement. By a decree of the Convention it was ordered, that the place of its sittings should be closed, the assembly dissolved, and the Section disarmed.

. On the 12th of Vendemiaire (3rd October), at seven or eight in the evening, general Menou, accompanied by the representatives of the people, who were commissioners to the army of the interior, proceeded with a numerous body of troops to the place of meeting of the Section Lepelletier, to carry into execution the decree of the Convention. The infantry, cavalry, and artillery were all crowded together in the rue Vivienne, at the extremity of which is the convent of the FillesSaint-Thomas. The Sectionaries occupied the windows of the houses of this street; several of their battalions drew up in order of battle in the court of the convent, and the military force, which general Menou commanded, found itself compromised.

The committee of the Section had declared itself a representation of the sovereign people, in the exercise of its functions; it refused to obey the orders of the Convention; and after spending an hour in useless negotiations, general Menou and the commissioners of the Convention withdrew, by a species of capitulation, without having dispersed or disarmed the meeting.

The Section, thus victorious, declared itself permanent; sent deputations to all the other Sections; boasted its success, and has tened the organization necessary for securing the success of its resistance. Preparations commenced for the 13th of Vendemiaire.

General Bonaparte, who had been for some months attached to the directors of the movements of the French armies, was in a box at the theatre Feydeau, when some of his friends informed him of the singular events that were passing. He was curious to witness the particulars of so grand a spectacle. Seeing the Conventional troops re◄ pulsed, he hastened to the assem bly to observe the effect of this intelligence, and to trace the developements and character which would there be given to it.

The Convention was in the greatest agitation. The represen➡ tatives with the army, in order to exculpate themselves, loudly accused Menou. The consequences of his want of skill were ascribed to treason. He was placed under arrest.

Various representatives then appeared at the tribune; they described the extent of the danger. The news which every moment arrived from the Sections, showed, but too plainly, how great the peril actually was. Every member recommended the general who possessed his confidence. Those who had been at Toulon, and with the army of Italy, and the members of the committee of Public Safety, who were in daily communication with Napoleon, proposed him as more capable than any other person, from the promptness of his coup-d'œil, and the energy of his character, of bringing them safely through the present danger. Messengers were sent into the city to seek him.

Napoleon, who had heard all that had been said, and knew what was in agitation, deliberated with himself more than half an hour on the course most eligible for him to pursue. A deadly war was break

ing out between the Convention and Paris. Would it be prudent to declare himself to speak in the name of all France? Who would dare to enter the lists alone as the champion of the Convention? Victory itself would be attended with a degree of odium, whilst defeat would devote the unsuccessful combatant to the eternal execration of future generations.

Why thus devote himself to be the scape-goat of crimes to which he had been a stranger? Why voluntarily expose himself to add, in a few hours, one more to the list of those names which men shudder to pronounce?

But, on the other hand, if the Convention should sink, what would become of the great truths of our Revolution? Our numerous victories, our blood so often shed, would then be only disgraceful actions. The foreigner, whom we had often vanquished, would triumph, and load us with his contempt; an insolent unnatural crew would re-appear triumphant; would reproach us with our crimes; would indulge their revenge, and rule us, like helots, by foreign force.

Thus the defeat of the Convention would place a victorious crown on the brows of the foreigner, and seal the disgrace and slavery of the nation.

This sentiment-the ardour of five and twenty-confidence in his own powers and his destiny, prevailed. He made up his mind, and went to the committee, to which he represented with energy, the impossibility of directing so important an operation, while subject to the interference of three representatives, who, in fact, exercised all power, and impeded all the operations of the general. He added,

that he had witnessed all the proceedings of the rue Vivienne; that the commissioners had been chiefly to blame, and had, nevertheless, acted the part of accusers in the assembly with triumphant

success.

Struck with these arguments, but unable to deprive the commissioners of their functions without a long discussion in the assembly, the committee, to conciliate matters, for they had no time to lose, resolved to select the general from the assembly itself. With this view, it proposed Barras to the Convention, as general-inchief, and gave the command under him to Napoleon, who thus found himself relieved from the three commissioners, without their having any thing to complain of.

As soon as Napoleon found himself invested with the command of the forces destined to protect the Assembly, he went to one of the cabinets of the Tuileries, where Menou remained, to obtain from him the necessary information as to the force and position of the troops and artillery. The army consisted of only five thousand soldiers of all descriptions, with forty pieces of cannon, then at the Sablons, guarded by fifteen men: it was an hour after midnight. Napoleon instantly despatched a major of the 21st light horse (Murat) with three hundred cavalry, to proceed, with all possible expedition, to the Sablons, and bring off the artillery to the garden of the Tuileries. One moment more would have been too late. This officer, on arriving at the Sablons at two o'clock, fell in with the head of a column of the Section Lepelletier, 'come for the purpose of carrying off the artillery; but his troops being

cavalry, and the ground a plain, the Section retreated; and at six in the morning the forty guns entered the Tuileries.

From six o'clock to nine, Napoleon visited all the posts, and placed his artillery at the head of the Pont Louis XVI, of the Pont Royal, of the rue de Rohan, at the Cul-de-sac Dauphin, in the rue St. Honoré, at the Pont Tournant, &c. He intrusted the custody of the guns to officers worthy of confidence. All the matches were lighted, and the whole of the little army was distributed at the different posts, or in reserve at the garden, and the Place Carrousel. The generale beat throughout Paris, and the national guards formed at all the debouches; thus surrounding the palace and gardens. Their drums carried their insolence so far as to come and beat the generale on the Carrousel, and the Place Louis XV.

The danger was imminent. Forty thousand national guards well armed and trained, presented themselves as the enemies of the Convention: the troops of the line intrusted with its defence were few in number, and might easily be brought over by the sentiments of the population which surrounded them. The Convention, in order to increase its forces, armed 1,500 individuals called the Patriots of 1789. They were men, who, after the 9th of Thermidor, had lost their employments and quitted their departments, where they were persecuted by public opinion. Three battalions were formed of them, which were placed under the command of general Berruyer. These men fought with the greatest valour. Their example influenced the troops of the

line, and they were of the greatest importance to the success of this day.

A committee of forty members, composed of the committees of Public Safety and General Security, directed all affairs. Cambacérès was president: they discussed much, and decided nothing; while the pressure of the danger increased every moment.

Some were desirous to lay down their arms, and receive the sectionaries as the Roman senators reIceived the Gauls. Others were desirous that the assembly should retire to Cæsar's camp at the heights of Saint-Cloud, there to be joined by the army of the coasts of the ocean. Others wished deputations to be sent to all the forty-eight Sections, to make various propositions to them. During these vain discussions, at two in the afternoon, a man named Lafond debouched on the Pont Neuf, coming from the Section Lepelletier at the head of three or four battalions; whilst another column of the same force advanced from the Odeon to meet them. They joined in the Place Dauphine.

General Cartaux, who had been stationed at Pont Neuf with 400 men and four pieces of cannon, with orders to defend the two sides of the bridge, abandoned his post, and fell back under the wickets. At the same time a battalion of the national guard occupied the garden of the Infanta: they professed to be well affected towards the Convention, and nevertheless seized on this post without orders. On another side Saint-Roch, the theatre Français, and the hotel Noailles, were occupied in force by the national guard. The opposite posts were not more than from twelve to fifteen yards asunder.

The Sectionaries every moment sent women, or advanced themselves, unarmed, and waving their hats over their heads, to fraternize with the troops of the line.

Matters grew worse every moment. At three o'clock, Danican, general of the Sections, sent a flag of truce to summon the Convention to dismiss the troops which threatened the people, and to disarm the Terrorists. This messenger traversed the posts blindfolded, with all the forms of war. He was thus introduced into the midst of the committee of the forty, in which he caused a great sensation by his threats. He was sent back towards four o'clock. The night was coming on, and there could be no doubt that darkness must be favourable to the Sections, considering their great number. They might creep from house to house into all the avenues of the Tuileries, already strictly blockaded. About the same time seven hundred muskets, belts, and cartridge-boxes were brought into the hall of the Convention to arm the members themselves as a corps-de-reserve, which alarmed many of them, who had not until then comprehended the magnitude of the danger in which they stood.

At length, at a quarter after four, some muskets were discharged from the hotel de Noailles, into which the Sectionaries had introduced themselves; the balls reached the steps of the Tuileries. At the same instant, Lafond's column debouched by the quay Voltaire, marching over the Pont Royal. The batterics were then ordered to fire. An eight-pounder, at the Cul-de-sac Dauphin, commenced the fire, and served as a signal to all the posts. After several discharges, Saint-Roch was carried:

Lafond's column, the head and flank of which were both exposed to the cannonade from the quay, at the point of the Louvre wicket, and from the head of Pont Royal, was routed. The rue SaintHonoré, the rue Saint-Florentin, and the adjacent places, were swept by the guns. About a hundred men attempted to make a stand at the theatre de la Republique; a few shells from the howitzers dislodged them in an instant. At six o'clock all was

over.

If a few cannon were heard at long intervals in the course of the night, it was to prevent the barricades which some inhabitants had attempted to form with casks.

There were about two hundred killed and wounded on the part of the Sectionaries, and nearly as many on the side of the Convention; the greater part of the latter, at the gates of Saint-Roch.

The Section of the QuinzeVingts, faubourg St.-Antoine, was the only one that took part with the Convention; it furnished 250 men: so completely had the late political oscillations of this body alienated all classes from it. The Faubourgs, however, if they did not rise in favour of the Convention, certainly did not act against it. It is untrue, that, in the commencement of the action, the troops were ordered to fire with powder only; that would only have served to embolden the Sectionaries, and to endanger the troops; but it is a fact, that when once they were engaged, and suecess had ceased to be doubtful, they fired without ball.

Some assemblages still continuing to take place in the Section Lepelletier, on the 14th in the morning some columns debouched